


strange ways part 1

by Philosophywax



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-20
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-04-10 06:48:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4381499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Philosophywax/pseuds/Philosophywax
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a collection of stories about a mysterious man who is present in many times and places</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

He never really knew why he was beating the tree. He just remember his dad making him do it. He felt his hands slam into the bark and the pain that shot up through his arm and into his whole body. He also remembered that if he didn’t hit it as hard as he could, the punishment was worse. This is what he was dreaming about. Picturing his fists as they slowly turned to pulp against a 4 yr old Georgia Pine. That thought woke him up.  
It took a minute to calm down, slow his breathing. When he did, the heat and humidity in the dark room brought him back. He was pretty sure he was still in New Orleans. Somewhere just off Bourbon. He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. He knew his right eye was doing the Wild Eye thing. Thats what he called it. The pupil in his right eye would shrink to a pin hole and the whole eye would slant to one side or the other. It wasn’t pain, just a unsettling feeling. He didn’t know exactly when he was in New Orleans, or how long he had been here.  
He wasn’t even real sure he knew what he was supposed to do next. A drop of sweat fell off his nose and fell to the ground between his feet. He got up and from the closet grabbed the first shirt he could grab. Who knows who’s it was or what was on it. He put it on and went to the dresser. Picked up his gun and clipped it to his slacks. It fell and hit the ground. When he looked down he saw it wasn’t his gun, but a deck of cards, now scattered all over the floor. The queen of spades had landed on his foot. Why did he think it was a gun? Why did he think he even owned a gun? His eye was pulsing now. It was dark outside when he closed the door behind him. But the air was thick and wet. Felt like an embrace. He made his way to Bourbon and turned right. About a block down he picked up a bead necklace that was in the gutter. This went into his pocket. If it really existed. He knew where he was headed, but no idea why. And when he got to the old opera house he stopped. Here he was. Now what?  
He looked up at the facade of the building and he could see it being built. He was pretty sure it had been built around the time of the civil war, so what he was seeing was obviously with his right eye. It was kind of interesting. He started to feel dizzy and leaned against the wall that hadn’t been built yet. He turned his back to it and looked across the street. The green door on the left was important. But he had no idea why. He leaned there for a long time. Long enough to finish the opera house and see Katrina come ashore. Now two men came out of the door. Whispering. But he could hear every word. He recognized the words, even knew what each word meant, but couldn’t string together anything that they were saying. He started across the street to them and the whole world shifted. Falling back against the wall everything calmed down. The two men, now in bright sunlight, even thought he himself was in nighttime darkness were laughing. The the one in the green hat looked at him and waved him over.  
He tried to stand again, and this time the world didn’t go all funky. He walked to the man in the green hat and followed him down Bourbon. He wasn’t sure if they man was here now, or the future or past. But the man seemed to know he was following him. They turned a corner and a taxi was idling. The man in the green hat opened the door. He got in. the man in the green hat shut the door and kept walking down the street. The phrase that he had used most was Now What? Which he spoke aloud. The driver turned around and looked him in the eye. But the driver had the same wild eye he did. The driver said. Hold on, you’re going on quite a ride


	2. Chapter 2

The second drink wasn’t as bad as the first one was. But that’s usually the way it is with clawberry ale. It wasn’t good, but he didn’t mind so bad. He was playing solitaire when she came up to the table. She was wrapped in a hiddessa which covered her. All but her face. She was beautiful, but when he looked at her he felt his eye twitch. He turned up the next card, the queen of spades.  
“Are you sleeved?” she said  
He laid the queen on the king of hearts and without looking at her he slid up his right sleeve up about 2 inches. He was grateful that there was no ink. Sometimes there is.  
“I’m not really the brave type” he said  
“right now I need someone with wits more than bravery. And unsleeved is better” she said.  
“what makes you think Ill do things that are.......less than........permitted by the law?” he asked  
“I don’t, I'm taking a chance. And I cannot pay. Not now, maybe never”  
“You want someone to come to the aid of a lady, who isn’t sleeved, to do something possibly illegal and you want them to do it for no money?”  
“Yes, and I cannot offer myself, either.”  
“i know, your husband wouldn’t like it”  
“How do you....”  
“Your hiddessa, you wrapped the left side first and tied it with a blue sash. So, you’re either married, widowed or engaged” he said, flipping the next card over. It was the joker.  
“I need to go thru the forest” she said.  
“Not gonna happen. Not with me, anyway.”  
she sat down, almost melted into the seat. Like he was her last hope and had just pulled the plug.  
“I don’t know anyone who wants to go in there. You know there is a reason its called the forest of Mean Shadows, right?”  
“I do know, but that’s where I need to go. And I was told you have been into the forest”  
“Once, never again”  
“Did you see the sign carved on the house at the lake in the forest?”  
“i did, but I wasn’t taking pictures.”  
“you weren’t taking what?”  
he realized his right eye had began its slant, which means he needed to be alert to what he said.  
“taking pitchers. I wasn’t hauling ale in and out of there. In other words, I wasn’t there for the atmosphere” he said. He thought he probably covered his mistake pretty well.  
“I made that sign. For my husband. Well, I made it before he was my husband.”  
“it said something about cheap thrills and divine love or something like that?”  
she unwrapped her right shoulder and showed her own ink that said 'Where thrills are cheap and love is divine'. But it was what his right eye saw that made him swallow, look her in the eyes and say,  
“Milady, good to see you again.”


End file.
